Support for the Fourth International Joint IMS-ISBA Conference

描述（由申请人提供）：项目概要统计学家在生物医学，环境和公共卫生数据的分析中发挥着不可或缺的作用，从研究设计阶段一直到最终分析和报告撰写。统计学家还在无数的科学审查和咨询小组中任职，并为实质性领域的研究人员提供统计培训和咨询。最后，开发新的统计方法来解释临床、观察和实验室研究的数据是统计奋进的一个关键领域。因此，可以交流新思想的学术会议对统计科学的发展至关重要。国际会议，虽然由于其规模和费用，当然比较罕见，但特别有益，因为它们允许与会者接触思想和同事，他们可能不会在自己国家的熟悉期刊上看到或甚至读到。初级统计研究人员参加这种会议的好处和必要性特别大，因为他们对自己的专业发展作出巨大贡献，有助于与资历较深的高级调查人员“公平竞争”。 在本申请中，我们请求支持IMS（数理统计研究所）和ISBA（国际贝叶斯分析学会）的第四次国际联合会议，该会议将于2011年1月5日（星期三）至1月7日（星期五）在犹他州帕克城举行。会议的一个中心主题是马尔可夫链蒙特卡罗（MCMC）和应用于环境健康问题的相关方法。 我们寻求的最大一部分支持是支持初级调查员的差旅费，即，在统计学、生物统计学或密切相关领域攻读博士学位或博士学位的人员，或在会议召开前五年内获得此类学位的人员。这些研究人员所做的研究往往是最新颖、最有趣和最重要的国际传播研究之一，但他们缺乏出席此类会议所需的差旅费，因为他们尚未建立足以吸引外部差旅费和其他工作经费的出版记录。ISBA承诺为10名来自经济落后国家的年轻博士提供部分旅行支持。 会议的具体目标和预期效益是：7促进环境卫生科学、生物医学和其他领域统计理论和应用的持续发展; 7探讨在具体研究领域中经典统计方法和贝叶斯统计方法的相互作用; 7.为研究人员提供一个深入讨论某一领域的机会，允许他们有充足的时间就某一具体主题进行介绍; 7.鼓励青年研究人员在会议的重点领域进行研究，为跨学科合作提供充分的机会; 7.鼓励年轻的研究人员和学生在友好的小型会议环境中介绍他们的工作，与资深同事互动，并与同龄人接触; 7.在参与者中包括来自代表性不足群体的大部分研究人员和学生，并提供与其他机构同事进行一对一讨论的机会; 7鼓励在ISBA的官方期刊Bayesian Analysis上发表会议最佳论文的参考版本（包括邀请和贡献），可在ba.stat.cmu.edu在线查阅。 公共卫生相关性：数学统计研究所和国际贝叶斯分析学会第四次国际联席会议将环境卫生统计作为主要议题之一，这一议题可能对与会者产生积极影响，并可能对环境卫生统计研究产生更广泛的影响，与推进国家环境卫生统计研究所的使命有直接关系。最终的回报将不仅是这些初级研究人员将提高其职业成功的潜力，而且更大的研究界将享受到准备更充分的统计合作者的反映效益，他们准备更成功地解决新的方法挑战，特别是环境健康问题。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): PROJECT SUMMARY Statisticians play an indispensable role in the analysis of biomedical, environmental and public health data, from the study design stage all the way through to final analysis and report-writing. Statisticians also serve on a myriad of scientific review and advisory panels, as well as provide statistical training and consulting to substantive area researchers. Finally, the development of new statistical methodology for interpretation of data from clinical, observational, and laboratory studies is a key area of statistical endeavor. As a result, scholarly conferences where new ideas can be exchanged are important for statistical science to move forward. International meetings, while of course rarer due to their size and expense, are particularly beneficial since they permit exposure to ideas and colleagues the attendee might not ordinary see or even read about in the familiar journals of one's own country. The benefit of and need for attendance at such meetings by junior statistical researchers is particularly great, since they contribute mightily to their professional development and help "level the playing field" with more established senior investigators. In this application, we request support for the Fourth International Joint Meeting of the IMS (Institute of Mathematical Statistics) and ISBA (the International Society for Bayesian Analysis), to be held in Park City, Utah on Wednesday, January 5 to Friday, January 7, 2011. A central theme of the conference will be Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and related methods applied to environmental health problems. The lion's share of the support we seek is to support the travel expenses of junior investigators, i.e., persons pursuing a PhD or DrPH in statistics, biostatistics, or a closely related field, or who have received such a degree within the five years preceding the conference. Such investigators are often doing research that is among the most novel, interesting, and important for international dissemination, yet lack the travel funds necessary to attend such a conference, since they have not yet established a publication track record sufficient to attract external travel and other funding for their work. We have a commitment from ISBA to provide partial travel support for 10 young recent PhDs from economically disadvantaged countries. The specific goals and the anticipated benefits from the conference are: 7 to promote the continued development of statistical theory and applications in environmental health sciences, biomedicine and other areas; 7 to explore the interplay of classical and Bayesian statistical methods in the context of specific areas of research; 7 to provide an opportunity for researchers to discuss an area in some depth, by allowing ample time for presentations on a specific subject; 7 to motivate young researchers to conduct research in the conference's focus areas that provide ample opportunity for interdisciplinary collaboration; 7 to encourage young researchers and students to present their work, interact with senior colleagues, and make contact with their peers in a friendly, small meeting environment; 7 to include a large portion of researchers and students from underrepresented groups among participants, and provide the opportunity for one-on-one discussions with colleagues from other institutions; 7 to encourage refereed versions of the conference's best papers (both invited and contributed) in Bayesian Analysis, the official journal of ISBA, available online at ba.stat.cmu.edu. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The Fourth International Joint Meeting of the IMS (Institute of Mathematical Statistics) and ISBA (the International Society for Bayesian Analysis) has targeted environmental health statistics as one of the main topics, with the potential for positive impact on participants that is likely to have broader implications for environmental health statistical research, having a direct relationship to advancing the mission of NIEHS. The ultimate payoff will be not only those junior researchers will enhance their potential for career success, but that the greater research community will enjoy the reflected benefits of better-prepared statistical collaborators poised to solve new methodological challenges, in particular in environmental health problems, more successfully.